Polzin: “It’ll be one of the biggest challenges”

On Saturday, HSV will be involved in yet another prime-time fixture when they travel to take on Borussia Dortmund on matchday 27 of the Bundesliga season (18:30 CET). On Thursday afternoon (19th March), HSV head coach Merlin Polzin addressed the upcoming encounter with the eight-time German champions in the pre-match press conference. The 35-year-old spoke in detail about…

…the squad: Bakery Jatta, Yussuf Poulsen, Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit and Nicolas Capaldo are all unavailable. After feeling good earlier in the week, Capi felt something recently. He’ll have some more tests. He’s definitely going to miss the game in Dortmund, and we’re hoping that he’ll be able to return to action around the international break.

…the opposition: In Dortmund, we’re going up against a team who have already picked up more points than they did in whole of last season. They’ve only lost two matches, and both were against Bayern. We know that it’s going to be a tough match but, at the same time, we’re motivated to play well. We’ve done a lot of thorough analysis, want to use certain pockets of space more effectively after winning the ball back, especially on the break, and make better decisions. We could have done the same in recent weeks, too.

…the recent performances away from home: We’re aiming to be competitive in every game. The Volksparkstadion form carried us somewhat at a couple of stages during the first half of the season. At the same time, it goes without saying that we wanted to put in solid performances on the road. Recently, in Wolfsburg and Mainz, the team demonstrated how they can turn games on their head. It’s getting easier and easier to take each game as it comes. On Saturday, it’ll be one of the biggest challenges to play at that stadium and in front of that crowd and compete. We’re over the moon about having the chance to perform there. It’s going to be really tough, but we’ve worked out a plan and are hoping to keep the game as open for as long as possible.

“When you’re a promoted side, it’s all about defending your goal well”

…the tactics: After we got promoted, we drew up a very clear idea of how we wanted to achieve our goals. When you’re a promoted side, it’s all about defending your goal well. If you look at the standings from the second half of the season, we’ve conceded the joint fewest goals along with Leverkusen and Stuttgart. Since matchday 4, when the squad was finalised, we’ve been really solid. You can see that we intend to score as many goals as possible, but only to do so in a balanced way. It’s a case of seeing which set-ups bring about the most scoring opportunities. We’ve scored most of our goals on the break because the team has defended well, and we have a lot of players who can pose a threat after winning the ball back due to their pace and energy. In some matches and at certain moments, that can come at the expense of other player profiles.

…Robert Glatzel’s comments: I consider it in different ways. The opinion and perspective that Bobby has is the same for every player, and it’s not something new for us as a coaching team that players who aren’t happy with their role or their playing time make this known. It’s all legitimate. But the other thing is the whole process and the intention behind it. Bobby has consciously chosen to do things this way. That’s something that doesn’t correspond with our way of doing things or our ethos at the club. For that reason, we cleared things up internally and found a way to express the situation clearly. After an open and honest conversation with Bobby, we’ve put the matter behind us. The most important thing is that, at the end of the day, we and the club want to achieve a goal together: to establish HSV in the Bundesliga. In that regard, all of the players and staff play a really important role. The team always takes priority.